Speechification

OK. I admit it. This is partly here because of fierce East Midland pride. It’s not often Derby gets on Radio 4. So I fired up the Audio Hijack as soon as I heard there was going to be a programme about the splendid Derby Arboretum; the first municipally-owned public park in Britain. But it’s worth listening to even if you’re not from Derby: especially the stories of JC Loudon, an early advocate of public parks. He constantly dictated thoughts and articles to his amanuensis, even while waiting for his arm to be amputated. Apparently. MP3 here.

Blimey. This is our 300th post. That feels like a little milestone to me. And this is probably an appropriate programme. In many way’s it’s exactly what you’d expect; Stephen Fry is twinkly, arch and clever, various linguistic and maritime experts are interesting and scholarly about the naval and oceanic metaphors that soak the English language. It’s good stuff, but it’s a little predictable. And then, from nowhere, you get Mrs Constantinou, the owner of a Greek removals business, explaining the origins of the word metaphor and it becomes the best radio you’ve listened to for ages. Hurrah. MP3 here.

Human beatboxing plus ornithology. It’s almost perfect Speechification fodder. If only they’d mentioned shipping containers. MP3 here.

I wish The Specials had stayed with their previous name - The Coventry Automatics, that would really have solidified the West Midlandsness of the Two Tone time. This is a couple of pretty straight-forward documentaries about Two Tone, straight-forward but good. Some archive stuff, some ancient live performances, some reminiscence, good anecdotes. I liked the fact that a French hotel owner expected The Specials to pay for damage done by The Dammed the previous week, because both bands looked like punks. Style-tribe accountability; that’s what we want to see. MP3 for Part One here. Part Two here.

UPDATE: Hopefully the files work properly now.

It’s a little quiet here at Speechification towers isn’t it? Sorry about that. We all appear to be on holiday and /or watching the Olympics. Anyway. Here’s something splendid to keep you going - a documentary about B-sides, one of those documentaries that makes you realise there’s far more to a topic than meets the eye. I especially liked the bit about Phil Spector making awful jazz B-sides for records so DJs wouldn’t play the ‘wrong’ song. And here’s a lovely little bit by the programme maker about the tribulations of voice-overing. MP3 here.

David Quantick is the perfect chap to do this celebration of Mix Tape culture. I suspect the speechification audience doesn’t need to be told of the joy of mixtaping, this is right up our collective street, but it’s still a splendidly evocative listen. Of course, with the advent of Muxtape et al, there might be a programme soon about the Reappearing Art Of The Mix Tape. Though it won’t be quite the same without the biro scrawling. MP3 here.

I don’t think I’d had the nerve to post another Archive Hour, it seems we do it every week, but this one was a listener request so I couldn’t resist. And it is a complete audio joy. The words, the voices, the music are all great, a welcome departure from the Radio 4 norm in the use of music. But the sheer sound of it is delicious. Lots of crackly phones, under-powered tape recorders, badly tuned radios. It’s incredibly evocative. Hats off to Brook Lapping who made it, and in an absolutely unheard departure for a radio production company, mention it on their website! Genius. MP3 here.

Another of Ben Thompson’s interviews for Resonance. This time with national treasure Vic Reeves. He takes us on an excellent musical tour, including a childhood encounter with Jimi Hedrix in Darlington (perhaps a few hours before this photo was taken). There’s also some Dave and Ansel Collins, some splendidly odd British psychedelia from Piblokto, some Strauss, some Dick Gaughen, and Shoplifting by The Slits. Which, strangely, in researching this post I discovered you can get as a complimentary ringtone. That can’t be right. MP3 here.

More great behind the scenes stuff from Radio 4. This time looking at the world of Olympic judges and adjudicators. I love the contrasts between the passions and angsts of the athletes and the calm, necessary pernicketiness of the judges. Nicely presented by Allison Curbishley. MP3 here.

I caught the tail end of this while washing-up. Radio seems to do this behind the scenes in the workplace extremely well, I guess it’s less intrusive than telly. And this peep behind the curtain at ocean science is combined with interesting philosophical chat about the nature of doing science. Lots of Popper talk. Always the mark of a good radio programme. Stephen Webster does a lovely job with this, chatty when chatting, sharp when philosophising. Of course, it would be nice if I could also have pointed you at programme 1 in the series, but it’s gone. Ah well. For more science sounds from Speechification you can go here. MP3 here.